Slight drop in top grades as thousands of A-level students collect results
Video report by ITV News Anglia's Hannah Pettifer
Thousands of students across East Anglia have been collecting their A-level results.
Nationally, the number of students achieving the top grades at A-level has fallen to its lowest level for more than a decade, with 25.5% getting an A grade or higher.
That's the lowest figure since 2007 when it was 25.3%.
However, the overall pass rate (grades A* to E) remains at 97.6% for students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - the same figure as last year.
At Fakenham Sixth Form College in Norfolk, they were celebrating a 100% pass rate, while 73% of their students achieved an A* to C grade - a slight increase on last year (72%).
"Compared to last year the grades have actually increased. We have 100% of students passing their qualification, and we have more passing at A* to C, A* to B and getting the top grades at A* and A," Principal Richard Allen Evans told ITV News Anglia.
"It's fantastic both for us as a school and for the students themselves. It is more than just the results we celebrate today, it is the ending of an era for these students which is excellent."
For those students who didn't quite get what they'd hope for, they will now have the option of Clearing.
Some 60,000 students found university places via the system in 2018.
"The marketing activity this year over clearing is significantly more across the sector than in previous years," David Seaton from the University of Bedfordshire said.
"The intensive nature of our education means that universities are having to come up with creative, new initiatives to attract students to call their clearing hotlines in the first place."